Principal OT Engineer

Valar Atomics•Torrance, CA

About The Position

Valar Atomics is hiring a Principal OT Engineer within its Engineering organization, working with Instrumentation & Controls. The role takes on the department’s most difficult technical problems and provides hands-on engineering coverage across disciplines. It combines broad practical capability with deep expertise in multiple areas to investigate failures and resolve integration problems spanning system boundaries. The work includes escalations, design development, standards, and verification procedures to improve systems and support the people who build and operate them. OT Engineering covers power and rack infrastructure, compute, networks, identity, physical and cybersecurity, operational data, and industrial software platforms such as FactoryTalk. FactoryTalk responsibilities include backend deployment, configuration, integration, and recovery. PLC programming and controls-code development are outside the scope of this position. The role includes travel to Valar Atomics’ Orangeville, Utah facility approximately 15% of the time. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Requirements

Broad practical capability across power and rack infrastructure; compute, storage, and virtualization; networking; industrial backends and data; Windows domains and access control; centralized services; cybersecurity; and log and packet analysis.
Deep hands-on expertise in several disciplines, demonstrated by resolving difficult cross-system failures, evaluating incomplete evidence, and verifying recovery when established procedures are insufficient.
Experience authoring and validating designs, standards, requirements, procedures, and acceptance criteria with sound engineering judgment.
Technical leadership of complex integration, commissioning, or recovery work, with usable technical records.
Strong organization, disciplined task tracking, accurate documentation, clear prioritization, and reliable follow-through.
Persistent problem-solving skills, including connecting symptoms across systems, testing competing explanations, and verifying fixes.
Ability to move between urgent hands-on work and sustained design work, leaving maintainable systems and documentation.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States as a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing reusable architectures or technical standards across multiple facilities or programs.
Experience turning lessons from major incidents into tested recovery practices adopted by multiple teams.
Deep expertise in additional disciplines or product families beyond the required breadth.

Responsibilities

Lead technical investigations of consequential failures and complex integration problems across physical, software, network, and data dependencies.
Provide implementation, commissioning, troubleshooting, or recovery support where the department needs technical coverage.
Evaluate incomplete or conflicting evidence, establish supported causes, and verify recovery.
Develop and review architectures, detailed designs, standards, and acceptance methods for demanding systems and interfaces.
Resolve technical gaps between disciplines and involve specialists when additional depth is needed.
Turn difficult failures and field lessons into improved designs, usable procedures, and knowledge the team can apply.
Travel to the Orangeville, Utah facility approximately 15% of the time.

Benefits

Competitive base salary.
Equity ownership in a rapidly growing advanced energy company.
Comprehensive medical benefits.
Unlimited PTO.
Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite.
Generous PPE stipend.
High-impact startup environment with significant ownership and autonomy.
Opportunities for rapid career growth and internal advancement.
Direct collaboration with experienced operators, engineers, and industry leaders.
Opportunity to help build and scale transformative energy technology from the ground up.